Sing-A-Beast (DISS033) is by Miriam, the performing name of Mariella Modonese going solo for the first time after occasional collaborations and guest vocal spots for other Italian experimenters. 10 charming tracks depict various animals, including the giraffe, the sloth, the anteater, and the porcupine; the musical portraits are matched by Miriam’s drawings in the enclosed booklet, many of the friendly beasts oddly detached from their environment; vegetation and ocean surroundings are only sketched in. Miriam plays everything from keyboards to Theremin, aided by the more experienced Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo who brings his guitar and viola to the picnic, among other accoutrements, and produced the record. A gentle update on Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns, and like that perennial favourite, entirely suitable for younger listeners. Any friend of the animal kingdom always gets bonus points from me, so I’ll award this one five paw-prints.
Pluhm is Lucio Leonardi. He wrote and played all the music on L’Anticristo (O L’Accettazione Del Male) (DISS030), and is credited with the concept behind it, which is about a “difficult” subject – possibly domestic violence, or violence within a relationship, or just a more general take on the dark side and capacity for hurting others that lurks in the heart of each of us. The title refers to the Antichrist, and suggests that we need to accept the existence of evil at some level, as a means perhaps of reconciling ourselves. He might be framing all this as a fiction, or perhaps has been troubled by some unnamed events in his own personal history. On the long and reflective title track, he expresses it by means of a very melancholic ambient drone, the surface distressed by crumbling tones. Things get even darker after that point. ‘Rumori di un Cuore Malato’, for instance, is like enduring a dark night of tension which could erupt into physical menace at any point. Less impressed by ‘Essere Nulla, Sentirsi Nulla’, which feels more sentimental and takes the form of slow easy-listening jazz with syrupy saxophone licks from Guido Tabone. Even so there’s a real emotional edge on this album, indicating that Pluhm has not shied away from facing up to the problematic subject.
We might be acquiring a taste for the cold ambient works of 400 Lonely Things, after two unusual releases for Cold Spring…Subdivisions (DISS031 / UNEXPLAINED SOUNDS GROUP USG102) doesn’t have any underlying concept or theme (unlike say his horror-movie record) but contains traces of what might be his signature moves, such as a wistful nostalgia and a predilection seeking out the poignant moments in any given situation. Today I learn that 400 Lonely Things started life in the 1990s as a duo (with Jonathan McCall), but now it’s just Craig Varian solo. He plays a lot of instruments and pays close attention to the recording method, making judicious use of distortion and distancing. His use of voice samples is especially delicate and artistic, bringing poetic touches to certain tracks. The cover image confirms the general vibe of “God’s Lonely Man” that he possibly wishes to convey; that anonymous isolated figure is restated in various alienating landscapes across all six panels of the digipak.
All from Dissipatio 7th July 2025.